CONWAY, S.C. — App State, which had Coastal Carolina matchups at the end of its regular-season schedules for each of the last four years, faces the Chanticleers in the Mountaineers' third Sun Belt series of 2021.
App State (11-12 overall) is 4-2 in the league with a home sweep of Arkansas State and a Sunday win at Georgia Southern. Coastal Carolina is 14-9 overall and 1-2 in league play following a trip to Louisiana.
Game 1 of this week's series in Conway is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, followed by a Friday game also at 6 p.m. and a Saturday finale on Easter Weekend at 2 p.m. All three games are scheduled to appear on ESPN+ and can be seen by clicking HERE.
No tickets will be available to the general public for the three games at Springs Brooks Stadium.
App State returns to Conway after last appearing there in May 2019, when the Mountaineers won 18-6 in Game 2 against Coastal Carolina in a series to close the regular season, then made their Sun Belt tournament debut in the same venue a few days later. App State lost 6-2 to Louisiana in that postseason matchup.
The Mountaineers are 3-3 in series openers this season and 3-3 in Game 2s, with Tyler Tuthill and Quinton Martinez serving as the starting pitchers, and bullpen standout Noah Hall has made the Sunday start in each of App State's first two Sun Belt weekends. He's 2-0 in those starts — the first two of his young career — with two runs allowed and 12 strikeouts in 11.0 innings.
App State's pitching through the first two Sun Belt weekends has been effective and efficient.
In a 3-1 loss in Game 1 and 3-1 win in Game 3 at Georgia Southern last weekend, App State used three total pitchers: Tuthill (5.1 innings as Game 1 starter), Hall (6.0 innings as Game 3 starter) and Eli Ellington (no runs allowed in 5.2 innings as a reliever who finished both games).
In the three-game sweep of Arkansas State, App State needed to use only six of its pitchers, as Tuthill went 7.0 innings in Game 1 and Martinez pitched 8.0 innings in Game 2. Hall closed out Game 1 and pitched the first 5.0 innings of Game 3, and Ellington closed out Game 2. Jason Cornatzer and Andrew Papp pitched an inning apiece to finish a 12-2, seven-inning win in Game 3.
Offensively, Robbie Young has 14 hits in the last 11 games, including a homer in the 3-1 win last Sunday, and Bailey Welch is 9-for-23 (.391) with 10 runs over the last nine games. In seven straight starts, with the first five coming at DH and the last two being at third base, leadoff hitter Peyton Idol is 7-for-24 (.292) with seven runs scored and seven RBIs.
